This invention relates generally to a new class of chemoselective polymer materials. In particular, the invention relates to linear and branched polycarbosilane compounds for use in various analytical applications involving sorbent polymer materials, including chromatography, chemical trapping, and chemical sensor applications. These polymeric materials are primarily designed to sorb hydrogen bond basic analytes such as organophosphonate esters (nerve agents and precursors), and nitroaromatics (explosives).
The use of sorbent chemoselective polymers for chromatography, chemical trapping, and chemical sensor applications is well established for technologies such as gas liquid chromatography, solid phase microextraction (SPME), and surface acoustic wave (SAW) sensors, respectively. In each application, the sorbent polymer is applied to a substrate as a thin film and analytes are sorbed to the polymer material. A typical configuration for a chemical sensor incorporates a thin layer of sorbent polymer deposited on a transducer that monitors changes in the physicochemical properties of the polymer film and translates these changes into an electrical signal that can be recorded.
By careful design of the polymer, both sensitivity and selectivity of a chemical sensor can be enhanced with respect to specific classes or types of analytes. Typically, a chemoselective polymer is designed to contain functional groups or active sites that can interact preferentially with the target analyte through dipole-dipole, van der Waals, or hydrogen bonding forces. The interaction between a chemoselective polymer and the analyte can even be regarded as a “lock and key” type interaction if multiple active sites in the polymer are spatially controlled so that an analyte with multiple functional sites can simultaneously interact with the polymer active sites.
The ideal polymer film for extended chemical sensor applications should exhibit reversible binding of analyte, high selectivity and high sorptivity, long term stability; and, as a thin film, offer fast sorption and desorption properties. To achieve these characteristics, a polymer must have physical properties that are amenable to rapid analyte sorption and desorption, suitable choice of functional groups, and a high density of functional groups to increase the sorptive properties for target analytes. Polymers with suitable analyte sorption characteristics can be obtained commercially for most analytes of interest with the exception of hydrogen bond acid polymers for sorption of hydrogen bond basic vapors. Of the few polymers that are commercially available (e.g., polyvinylalcohol, polyphenol, and fomblin zdol), either the physical properties are not ideal with glass transition temperatures above room temperature, the hydrogen bond acidity is relatively weak, or the density of functional groups is low.
Fluorinated polymers with hydroxyl groups as part of the polymer repeating unit and, in particular, polymers containing the hexafluoroisopropanol (HFIP) functional group are a well established class of hydrogen bond acid polymers. (See McGill, R. A.; Abraham, M. H.; Grate, J. W. CHEMTECH 1994, 24 (9), 27; Ballantine, D. S.; Rose, S. L.; Grate, J. W.; Wohltjen, H. Anal. Chem. 1986, 58, 3058; Snow, A. W.; Sprague, L. G.; Soulen, R. L.; Grate, J. W.; Wohltjen, H. J. Appl. Pol. Sci., 1991, 43, 1659; Houser, E. J.; McGill, R. A.; Mlsna, T. E.; Nguyen, V. K.; Chung, R.; Mowery, R. L. Proc. SPIE, Detection and Remediation Technologies for Mines and Minelike Targets IV, Orlando, Fla., 1999, 3710, 394-401; Houser, E. J.; McGill, R. A.; Nguyen, V. K.; Chung, R.; Weir, D. W. Proc. SPIE, Detection and Remediation Technologies for Mines and Minelike Targets V, Orlando, Fla., 2000, 4038; Houser, E. J.; Mlsna, T. E.; Nguyen, V. K.; Chung, R.; Mowery, R. L.; McGill, R. A. Talanta, 2001, 54, 469; Grate, J. W.; Patrash, S. J.; Kaganove, S. N.; Wise, B. M. Anal. Chem. 1999, 71, 1033; all of which are incorporated herein by reference). The polymer fluoropolyol (FPOL) has become a standard material for many polymer based chemical sensor applications requiring hydrogen bond-acid polymers. (See: Ballantine, D. S.; Rose, S. L.; Grate, J. W.; Wohltjen, H. Anal. Chem. 1986, 58, 3058; Snow, A. W.; Sprague, L. G.; Soulen, R. L.; Grate, J. W.; Wohltjen, H. J. Appl. Pol. Sci., 1991, 43, 1659; all of which are incorporated herein by reference). Recently reported polymers such as BSP3, SXFA, and CS3P2 have yielded improvements in sensitivity and response time relative to FPOL. (See: Houser, E. J.; McGill, R. A.; Mlsna, T. E.; Nguyen, V. K.; Chung, R.; Mowery, R. L. Proc. SPIE, Detection and Remediation Technologies for Mines and Minelike Targets IV, Orlando, Fla., 1999, 3710, 394-401; Houser, E. J.; McGill, R. A.; Nguyen, V. K.; Chung, R.; Weir, D. W. Proc. SPIE, Detection and Remediation Technologies for Mines and Minelike Targets V, Orlando, Fla., 2000, 4038; all of which are incorporated herein by reference).
Determining and/or monitoring the presence of certain chemical species within a particular environment, e.g., pollutants, toxic substances and other predetermined compounds, is becoming of increasing importance with respect to such areas as defense, health, environmental protection, resource conservation, police and fire-fighting operations, and chemical manufacture. Devices for the molecular recognition of noxious species or other analytes typically include (1) a substrate and (2) a molecular recognition coating upon the substrate. These devices may be used, for example, as stand-alone chemical vapor sensing devices or as a detector for monitoring different gases separated by gas chromatography. Molecular recognition devices are described in Grate et al., Sensors and Actuators B, 3, 85-111 (1991); Grate et al., Analytical Chemistry, Vol. 65, No. 14, Jul. 15, 1993; Grate et al., Analytical Chemistry, Vol. 65, No. 21, Nov. 15, 1993; and Handbook of Biosensor and Electronic Noses, ed. Kress-Rogers, CRC Press, 1996; all of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Frequently, the substrate is a piezoelectric material or an optical waveguide, which can detect small changes in the mass or refractive index, respectively. One illustrative example of a device that relies upon selective sorption for molecular recognition is known as a surface acoustic wave (SAW) sensor. SAW devices function by generating mechanical surface waves on a thin slab of a piezoelectric material, such as quartz, that oscillates at a characteristic resonant frequency when placed in a feedback circuit with a radio frequency amplifier. The oscillator frequency is measurably altered by small changes in mass and/or elastic modulus at the surface of the SAW device.
SAW devices can be adapted to a variety of gas and liquid phase analytical problems by designing or selecting specific coatings for particular applications. The use of chemoselective polymers for chemical sensor applications is well established as a way to increase the sensitivity and selectivity of a chemical sensor with respect to specific classes or types of analytes. Typically, a chemoselective polymer is designed to contain functional groups that can interact preferentially with the target analyte through dipole-dipole, van der Waals, or hydrogen bonding forces. For example, strong hydrogen bond donating characteristics are important for the detection of species that are hydrogen bond acceptors, such as toxic organophosphorus compounds. Increasing the hydrogen bond acidity and the density of hydrogen bond acidic binding sites in the coating of a sensor results in an increase in selectivity and sensitivity of the sensor for hydrogen bond basic analytes.
Chemoselective films or coatings used with chemical sensors have been described by McGill et al. in Chemtech, Vol. 24, No. 9, 27-37 (1994), incorporated herein by reference. The materials used as the chemically active, selectively absorbent layer of a molecular recognition device have often been polymers, as described in Hansani in Polymer Films in Sensor Applications (Technomic, Lancaster, Pa. 1995). For example, Ting et al. investigated polystyrene substituted with hexafluoroisopropanol (HFIP) groups for its compatibility with other polymers in Journal of Polymer Science: Polymer Letters Edition, Vol. 18, 201-209 (1980). Later, Chang et al. and Barlow et al. investigated a similar material for its use as a sorbent for organophosphorus vapors, and examined its behavior on a bulk quartz crystal monitor device in Polymer Engineering and Science, Vol. 27, No. 10, 693-702 and 703-15 (1987). Snow et al. (NRL Letter Report, 6120-884A) and Sprague et al. (Proceedings of the 1987 U.S. Army Chemical Research Development and Engineering Center Scientific Conference on Chemical Defense Research, page 1241) reported making materials containing HFIP that were based on polystyrene and poly(isoprene) polymer backbones, where the HFIP provided strong hydrogen bond acidic properties. These materials were used as coatings on molecular recognition devices, such as SAW sensors, and showed high sensitivity for organophosphorus vapors. However, both the parent polymers and the HFIP-containing materials were glassy or crystalline at room temperature. Because vapor diffusion may be retarded in glassy or crystalline materials, the sensors produced were slow to respond and recover. Additional information is reported in Polym. Eng. Sci., 27, 693 and 703-715 (1987).
Grate et al. in Analytical Chemistry, Vol. 60, No. 9, 869-75 (1988), which is incorporated herein by reference, discloses a compound called “fluoropolyol” (FPOL), which is useful for detecting organophosphorus compounds. FPOL has the formula:

An HFIP-containing polymer based on a polysiloxane backbone was described and demonstrated to be a good hydrogen-bond acid by Abraham et al., “Hydrogen Bonding. XXIX. The Characterisation of Fourteen Sorbent Coatings for Chemical Microsensors Using a New Solvation Equation”, J. Chem. Soc., Perkin Trans. 2, 369-78 (1995), incorporated herein by reference. The polysiloxane backbone provided a material with a Tg well below room temperature. However, physical properties were not quantified.
Grate, U.S. Pat. No. 5,756,631, incorporated herein by reference, discloses the use of HFIP-substituted siloxane polymers having the structure:
wherein R2 has the formula —(CH2)m-1—CH═CH—CH2—C(CF3)2—OH, n is an integer greater than 1, R1 is a monovalent hydrocarbon radical, and m is 1 to 4.
Grate et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,015,869; Jay W. Grate et al., “Hybrid Organic/Inorganic Copolymers with Strongly Hydrogen-Bond Acidic Properties for acoustic Wave and Optical Sensors,” Chem. Mater. 9, 1201-1207 (1999); Jay W. Grate et al., “Hydrogen Bond Acidic Polymers for Surface Acoustic Wave Vapor Sensors and Arrays,” Anal. Chem. 71, 1033-1040 (1999); and Igor Levitsky et al., “Rational Design of a Nile Red/Polymer Composite Film for Fluorescence Sensing of Organophosphonate Vapors Using Hydrogen Bond Acidic Polymers,” Anal. Chem. 73, 3441-3448 (2001); all of which are incorporated herein by reference, disclose a strongly hydrogen bonding acidic, sorbent oligomer or polymer having a glass-to-rubber transition temperature below 25° C. The polymers have (1) fluoroalkyl-substituted bisphenol segments containing interactive groups and (2) oligodimethylsiloxane segments. These siloxane polymers are said to provide improved coatings and vapor sorption compositions for chemical sensors that are sensitive, reversible and capable of selective absorptions for particular vapors, particularly the hydrogen bond accepting vapors, such as organophosphorus compounds.
The present invention discloses a newly discovered class of carbosilane polymers that can be used to produce hydrogen bond acidic coatings for chemical sensor applications. There has been no previously reported use of polycarbosilanes as hydrogen bond acidic coatings or material for any type of chemical sensor or collector applications. Use of the carbosilane polymers of the present invention that possess highly functionalized units can result in significant selectivity and sensitivity improvements.
Further, the chemoselective carbosilane polymer materials of the present invention exhibit, not only improved sensitivity to organophosphorus species, but also high selectivity and sensitivity toward nitroaromatic vapors, and are thus also useful for detecting the presence of explosives. Conventional explosives, such as trinitrotoluene (TNT), hexahydro-1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazine (RDX), and octahydro-1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5,7-tetrazocine (HMX), may be contained in unexploded munitions, e.g., buried below the surface of the ground. Such munitions exude or leak vapors of the explosive. These vapors are typically concentrated in the surrounding soil and then migrate to the surface where they can be detected by the compounds, devices and methods disclosed by the present invention.
It is well known that dogs can be used to locate land mines demonstrating that the canine olfactory system is capable of detecting and identifying explosive related analyte signatures. In order to improve land mine detection capability, the use of sensors for the detection of chemical vapors associated with explosives is of great interest. Of particular interest in developing chemical sensors is the ability to detect unexploded ordnance, e.g., the polynitroaromatic compounds that are frequently present in the chemical signature of land mines.